“ISIS turned up and they said to the children, ‘you say the words that you will follow Muhammad.’ The Children, all under 15, four of them, they said, ‘no, we love Yasua [Jesus]. We have always loved Yasua. We have always followed Yasua. Yasua has always been with us.'” White said. “[The Militants] said, ‘say the words!’ [The Children] said, ‘no, we can’t do that.’ They chopped all their heads off.”

“How do you respond to that?” White asked. “You just cry. They are my children. That is what we have been going through. That is what we are going through.”

Often the nonstop news of terrorist beheadings and persecution of Christians coming out of Iraq has had the devastating consequence of desensitizing many Christians here in America.

We don’t want to think about the horror Christians are facing in the Middle East, but we must.

White along with more 250,000 other Christians have been forced to flee Iraq as ISIS’s terrorist army advances.

If we don’t stand up for these Christians, they will be exterminated. ISIS is perpetrating mass genocide of Christians and other religious minorities.

While the Obama Administration has taken some action to protect Christians in Iraq, it, and the international community at large, has not done nearly enough.

Every day, Christians are being murdered while others flee their homes to save their families.

As Christians we must do more. We can’t be silent in the face of this utter evil. We must demand that our own government defend persecuted Christians. If we don’t, thousands more will die and the light of one of the oldest Christian populations in the world may be snuffed out completely.

Matthew Clark is Associate Counsel for Government Affairs and Media Advocacy with the ACLJ. A lifelong citizen of the Commonwealth of Virginia, he lives with his wife and three boys in Northern Virginia. Follow Matthew Clark: @_MatthewClark.